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MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


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VOL  XI 

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NO.  2 


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The  Inner  Life  of  a  College 

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By 


PRESIDENT  JOHN  M.  THOMAS 


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MIDDLEBURY.  VERMONT 
OCTOBER 

1916  X  ^ 


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Published  by  the  College  September,  October,  November,  December, 
January,  February,  April,  and  July.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  at  the 
postoflice,  Middlebury,  Vermont,  under  Acrof  Congress  of  July  16,  1694. 


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The  Inner  Life  of  a  College 


AN  ADDRESS  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  ONE 
HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTEENTH  YEAR 
OF  MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE 


By  President  John  M.  Thomas 


MIDDLEBURY,  VERMONT 

1916 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/innerlifeofcolleOOthom 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  A  COLLEGE. 


At  the  opening  of  the  117th  year  of  Middlebury 
College  and  at  this  first  student  assembly  in  this  stately 
and  beautiful  chapel,  whose  dignity  and  impressive¬ 
ness  must  move  us  all  to  serious  and  earnest  thought, 
I  wish  to  sound  a  note  of  progress  in  the  things  which 
make  up  the  inner  life  of  a  college.  What  shall  it 
profit  us  if  we  gain  magnificent  buildings  and  rich 
endowments,  and  boast  a  wide  domain  of  primeval 
forest,  if  we  lose  that  spirit  of  high  ambition  and 
academic  earnestness  which  has  been  all  our  glory  in 
the  great  days  of  the  past?  Silas  Wright  and  Solo¬ 
mon  Foote,  Edward  J.  Phelps  and  John  G.  Saxe, 
Henry  Norman  Hudson  and  Albert  Hurd,  and  Stew¬ 
art  and  Kellogg  and  Brainerd  and  Mead  and  Hepburn 
came  not  from  marble  halls  and  from  dormitories  with 
rooms  with  bath,  but  from  great  teachers,  like  Nath¬ 
aniel  Chipman  and  John  Hough  and  Solomon  Stod¬ 
dard  and  Charles  B.  Adams  and  George  N.  Boardman, 
and  from  a  resolute  purpose  on  their  own  part  to 
master  Greek  tragedy,  and  to  know  Shakespeare,  and 
to  grip  the  problems  of  Calculus. 

Since  the  centennial  of  our  college  in  1900  the 
institution  has  gone  forward  in  all  material  ways  by 
leaps  and  bounds.  At  that  time  there  was  only  the 
old  stone  row,  dignified,  well-proportioned,  wrapt  in 


4 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


time’s  incomparable  beauty,  but  plain  in  all  their  ap¬ 
pointments  and  limited  in  their  facilities  both  for 
student  life  and  academic  pursuits.  In  that  centen¬ 
nial  year  the  old  college  was  flanked  by  the  Egbert 
Starr  Library,  still  the  gem  of  all  our  college  struct¬ 
ures,  and  year  after  year  hall  and  residence  and  lab¬ 
oratory  have  been  added  until  few  of  us  could  tell  off¬ 
hand  how  many  college  buildings  we  have.  It 
depends  upon  where  in  our  spacious  campuses  you 
stop  and  what  kind  of  buildings  you  include.  In¬ 
cluding  residences  we  have* 22  college  buildings,  and 
the  newest  of  them  exceeds  both  in  cost  and  capacity 
all  three  of  the  old  buildings  which  were  the  only 
home  the  college  acquired  for  itself  in  the  first  ioo 
years  of  its  history. 

In  1900  Middlebury  College  had  123  students. 
This  year  with  the  summer  session  our  catalogue  will 
show  well  over  500.  Then  our  faculty  numbered 
10  :  now  we  have  32  instructors.  Then  our  endow¬ 
ments  were  $400, 000.  We  have  today  half  again  as 
much.  Then  we  offered  106  term  courses  :  now  we 
are  giving  217  semester  courses.  Then  the  college 
was  spending  less  than  $25,000  annually  for  its  stud¬ 
ents  :  the  last  Treasurer’s  report  shows  an  expendit¬ 
ure  of  $91,500. 

We  have  a  right  to  pride  in  this  record  and  it  is 
proper  we  should  put  the  facts  forcibly  before  the 
public.  The  people  of  Vermont  do  not  yet  realize 
the  advance  that  has  been  made  by  Middlebury  Col¬ 
lege  in  the  first  sixteen  years  of  its  second  century. 
They  do  not  yet  appreciate  the  advantages  we  offer  : 


THE  INNER  LIRE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


5 


for  example,  that  we  have  one  of  the  best  series  of 
chemical  laboratories  to  be  found  in  America,  with 
more  courses  than  are  given  in  many  institutions 
which  bestow  ambitious  degrees  in  chemical  engi¬ 
neering  ;  nor  that  our  Department  of  Pedagogy  is  in 
some  respects  the  best  practical  normal  school  for 
high  school  teachers  to  be  found  in  New  England. 
Surprise  as  well  as  admiration  is  expressed  by  every 
visitor  to  this  Mead  Memorial  Chapel  and  by  every 
one  who  examines  the  facilities  and  equipment  of 
Hepburn  Hall  and  looks  off  on  the  mountains  from 
its  windows.  They  had  not  imagined  that  such 
structures  had  been  erected  for  any  college  in 
Vermont. 

I  trust  we  have  not  finished  our  material  expansion. 
We  sadly  need  an  infirmary  and  an  endowment  to 
sustain  it,  so  that  students  becoming  ill  may  be  cared 
for  without  danger  or  inconvenience  to  others.  A 
college  of  350  students,  30  miles  from  a  hospital, 
with  no  provision  for  caring  for  the  sick,  is  certainly 
not  suitably  equipped.  I  hope  some  day  we  may 
have  a  college  boat-house,  with  concrete  foundations 
sufficient  to  withstand  the  spring  freshets,  so  that 
we  may  take  advantage  of  our  beautiful  river,  which 
is  as  well  adapted  to  boating  as  the  Thames  at  Ox¬ 
ford.  Much  more  serious  is  the  need  of  proper  pro¬ 
vision  for  administrative  offices.  One  office  has  been 
added  to  another  wherever  room  at  the  time  was 
available  until  they  are  now  scattered  in  three  differ¬ 
ent  buildings  and  on  six  different  floors,  at  great  in¬ 
convenience  to  both  officers  and  students.  We  could 


6 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


work  at  a  far  greater  efficiency  if  we  could  bring 
these  offices  together  on  one  or  two  floors.  The  old 
chapel  ought  always  to  be  the  administrative  center 
of  the  college.  There  would  be  room  there  for  suffi¬ 
cient  offices  if  we  could  have  either  a  building  devoted 
to  History,  Economics  and  Political  Science,  or  a  hall 
for  the  ancient  and  modern  languages — departments 
which  are  already  too  crowded  in  the  old  chapel 
building — allowing  the  use  of  present  recitation  rooms 
there  for  administrative  purposes.  Since  the  library 
was  erected,  this  chapel  is  the  only  structure  which 
has  been  given  to  us  which  stands  for  the  human  or 
spiritual  side  of  college  work.  We  have  built  new 
homes  for  the  sciences,  for  Biology  and  Chemistry 
and  Physics,  and  three  or  four  student  residences,  and 
a  gymnasium  and  a  heating  plant  and  a  grand-stand, 
but  we  teach  Homer  and  Horace,  History  and  Govern¬ 
ment  in  the  same  rooms  in  which  my  father  learned 
them  over  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  time  we  built  a  little 
for  the  humanities,  for  which  we  profess  especially 
to  stand. 

But  I  propose  that  we  hope  for  these  needed  ad¬ 
ditions  on  the  principle  stated  in  the  text,  “Seek  ye 
first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you.  ’ ’  If  we  are  worthy  of  them,  from 
the  high  quality  and  serious  earnestness  of  our  work 
as  an  institution  for  education,  they  will  come  to  us. 
If  we  are  not  worthy  of  them,  because  of  the  laxity 
of  our  student  work,  we  ought  not  to  expect  them. 
At  any  rate  I  am  persuaded  the  time  has  come  for  us 
in  Middlebury  College  to  stress  internal  improvement 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


7 


and  to  give  our  best  thought  both  as  teachers  and 
students  to  means  to  improve  the  quality  of  our 
academic  life. 

The  effort  should  not  be  all  on  the  student  side, 
and  I  think  I  can  assure  you  that  it  is  not.  I  know 
there  is  a  serious  searching  of  heart  on  the  part  of 
each  member  of  the  instructing  staff,  especially 
at  the  beginning  of  each  college  year,  as  to  how 
his  work  may  be  made  more  effective,  more  really 
gripping  on  the  student  mind.  It  may  be  theie 
should  be  closer  co-operation  between  members  of 
the  faculty,  better  team-work,  as  some  of  you  might 
put  it.  There  may  be  waste  of  time  in  going 
over  the  same  ground  in  different  classrooms  and 
laboratories.  Courses  in  the  literatures  of  Eng¬ 
land,  America,  Germany  and  France  deal  with  the 
same  periods,  the  same  movements  of  thought,  and 
the  same  literary  forms,  and  there  may  easily  be  rep¬ 
etition  and  consequent  waste  of  time.  The  same 
broad  human  facts  and  truths  are  considered  under 
different  aspects  in  the  departments  of  History  and 
Philosophy,  of  Economics  and  Political  Science,  and 
I  do  not  doubt  if  instructors  knew  more  accurately 
the  work  of  other  classrooms  than  their  own — and  I 
have  suggested  only  a  few  of  the  possibilities  of  over¬ 
lapping  and  omission — much  improvment  could  be 
made  and  the  curriculum  as  a  whole  notably  strength¬ 
ened.  Much  of  the  method  in  the  natural  and 
physical  sciences  is  common  to  them  all,  and  it  has 
often  been  suggested  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
work  out  a  course  in  general  science  that  would  cover 


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MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


the  broad  principles  of  Physics,  Biology,  Chemistry, 
and  Geology,  sufficiently  to  render  one  an  intelligent 
citizen  of  the  modern  world,  and  to  impart  a  knowl¬ 
edge  and  appreciation  of  scientific  method,  which 
after  all  is  the  great  benefit  of  scientific  study,  while 
at  the  same  time  laying  a  foundation  for  further 
special  study  in  any  particular  department  of  science. 
The  field  of  knowledge  has  grown  very  wide.  Every 
student  is  obliged  to  omit  more  than  one  department 
of  study  which  seems  essential  to  a  thorough  educa¬ 
tion.  It  is  our  duty  to  economize  the  student’s  time 
as  much  as  possible,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  avoiding 
duplication.  The  problem  is  difficult,  but  that  does 
not  excuse  us  from  an  attempt  to  solve  it. 

It  is  also  difficult  to  avoid  repetition  of  some  sec¬ 
ondary  school  work  in  college.  Preparation  will  vary 
no  matter  what  care  may  be  taken  in  admission,  and 
what  is  useless  repetition  to  one  may  be  necessary 
laying  of  foundations  for  another.  The  goal  that 
must  be  sought  is  individual  opportunity,  freedom 
for  all  students  at  all  times  to  press  on  toward  new 
knowledge  as  rapidly  as  possible.  A  department 
which  holds  able  students  back  by  forcing  them  to 
traverse  again  ground  they  have  already  covered  is 
hindering  the  college  from  its  best  work.  We  want 
to  get  our  students  into  advanced  work  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  without  slighting  the  necessary  foundations. 
It  is  the  advanced  courses  which  are  most  profitable 
for  them  and  most  agreeable  for  us,  and  not  a  day 
should  be  wasted  in  preliminaries  and  prerequisites 
that  is  not  absolutely  essential. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


9 


There  is  also  need  of  closer  correlation  in  the 
matter  of  grades  in  the  several  departments.  I  am 
not  ignorant,  and  you  do  not  need  to  be  informed, 
that  a  C  in  some  departments  is  equivalent  to  a  B  in 
others.  A  scientific  marking  system  has  not  been 
invented.  No  twenty  or  thirty  men  can  be  found 
who  will  evaluate  scholastic  work  by  the  same 
standards,  but  I  believe  we  could  reach  more  nearly 
just  and  even  standards  than  we  have  yet  attained  in 
Middlebury  College. 

We  should  also  approach  a  more  consistent  esti¬ 
mate  of  what  constitutes  a  fair  amount  of  work  for 
one-fifth  of  a  student’s  time.  We  give  three  credits 
for  a  course  three  hours  a  week  for  a  semester,  but 
one  does  not  ordinarily  reach  Sophomore  year  before 
discovering  that  an  hour  is  not  an  hour  in  our  college, 
but  varies  as  one  travels  from  building  to  building, 
and  even  from  room  to  room.  Records  have  been 
handed  me  of  capable  students  who  were  obliged  to 
spend  five  or  six  hours  for  each  recitation  of  one 
course,  work  of  the  sort  comparatively  easily 
measured  by  the  hour,  while  the  same  student  found 
one  hour  of  study  ample  for  another  course  taken  at 
the  same  time. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  problems,  by  no  means 
peculiar  to  Middlebury  College,  which  are  often  dis¬ 
cussed  among  us,  and  to  which  we  might  well  give 
attention  the  coming  year.  But  all  questions  of 
grades  and  credits  and  curricula  are  insignificant  in 
comparison  with  the  main  topic  that  fills  a  teacher’s 
mind  as  he  faces  a  new  year  of  opportunity.  There 


IO 


middlebury  college  bulletin 


is  such  a  thing  as  inspiring  teaching,  class-room  con¬ 
tact  that  stirs  souls  and  awakens  life  and  builds  men. 
There  are  men  of  quiet,  subtle,  pervasive  influence, 
who  never  thrill  you,  but  who  refine  and  purify  you, 
and  imbue  you  with  the  gentle  graces  and  give  you  an 
honor  which  you  never  lose  for  the  higher  things  of 
life.  Such  a  man  for  many  generations  of  Middlebury 
students  was  William  Wells  Eaton,  Professor  of 
Greek.  There  are  men  who  seem  to  know  in¬ 
tuitively  the  common  ground  between  themselves 
and  those  beneath  them,  who  keep  by  instinct  on 
that  enticing  borderland  just  beyond  the  known  and 
not  too  far  within  the  unknown,  never  droning  over 
the  familiar,  never  lost  in  the  clouds,  but  always 
adding  new  insights,  new  visions  of  truth,  while 
leaving  the  student  with  a  keen  unrest  and  an  earnest 
resolution  to  further  inquiry.  That  is  great  teach¬ 
ing,  the  teaching  not  of  subjects  but  of  men,  teach¬ 
ing  full  of  vitality  and  power,  that  builds  character 
and  sends  men  forth  themselves  to  kindle  fire  upon 
the  earth.  In  the  toil  and  drag  of  the  common  day 
we  are  apt  to  forget  the  goal,  but  in  a  moment  like 
this,  on  the  day  of  opening  of  the  greatest  opportun¬ 
ity  our  college  ever  had,  it  comes  clearly  before  us 
and  we  resolve  to  aspire  toward  it  with  all  our 
strength . 

But  the  most  inspiring  teaching  coupled  with 
the  wisest  administrative  methods  will  fail  without 
earnest  student  co-operation.  And  here  the  difficul¬ 
ty  is  not  in  good  intentions,  but  in  intelligent,  com¬ 
mon-sense  planning  to  effect  the  desired  results.  No 


THE  INNER  LIRE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


II 


one  comes  to  college  intending  to  waste  his  time,  or 
to  acquire  habits  which  will  handicap  him  through 
life,  or  to  leave  the  place  in  six  months  or  a  year  with 
the  stigma  of  failure .  There  are  enough  good  purposes 
and  high  ideals  in  this  chapel  this  morning  to  give  us 
the  cleanest,  most  wholesome,  most  earnest  little 
college  between  the  two  great  seas. 

What  may  we  do  to  realize  those  ideals  ?  In  the 
first  place  we  may  see  that  we  do  not  forget  them, 
but  rather  strengthen  and  confirm  them  from  day  to 
day.  And  here  I  count  much  upon  our  new  chapel, 
with  its  daily  service  at  an  hour  when  we  are  not 
hurried,  and  the  Sunday  gathering  for  consideration 
of  the  deeper  truths  of  life.  I  suggest  that  we  keep 
this  chapel  for  its  proper  use,  a  place  of  no  other  asso¬ 
ciations  than  those  connected  with  the  searching  of 
our  hearts  in  the  face  of  duty.  This  is  not  the  place 
for  class  meetings,  or  college  rallies,  or  debates,  or  the 
practice  of  college  cheers.  This  is  not  a  church  :  it 
is  a  college  chapel.  It  is  not  designed  to  steal  any 
man  from  the  faith  of  his  fathers.  Its  influence 
rather  should  be  to  strengthen  each  student  in  his 
own  religious  allegiance.  But  it  !is  a  place  where 
under  the  influence  of  holy  truth,  common  to  us  all, 
we  may  each  be  held  to  our  best  and  worthiest ;  and 
may  God  grant  that  so  it  may  prove  to  us  all  !  Our 
entrance  to  this  building  should  mark  a  new  day  for 
the  college.  We  shall  be  subject  hereafter,  as  we 
take  our  places  daily  in  this  reverent  room,  to  a  new 
influence,  gentle,  elusive,  mystical,  but  real  and  deep 
and  holy,  which  should  refine  our  ambitions,  and 


12 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


purify  our  deeds,  until  unconsciously  our  manners 
become  more  gentle  and  our  lives  more  pure. 

Cardinal  Newman  once  said  that  one  might  have 
a  university  in  tents  if  only  he  had  great  men  for  its 
teachers.  I  have  had  some  experience  recently  liv¬ 
ing  in  a  tent  and  I  found  it  a  very  poor  place  in 
which  to  study.  As  a  matter  of  fact  a  student’s  suc¬ 
cess  or  failure  depends  not  a  little  upon  the  place  in 
which  he  lives.  In  recent  years  our  facilities  for  resi¬ 
dences  of  men  have  been  sorely  inadequate.  The  old 
dormitories  were  too  crowded,  and  they  tempted  to 
confusion  instead  of  quiet.  Under  the  pressure  of 
both  numbers  and  economy  fraternity  houses  have 
been  overcrowded  and  there  has  been  no  central  su¬ 
pervision.  / 1  think  the  Carnegie  Foundation’s  report 
was  right  That  our  provision  for  homes  for  the  men  of 
the  college  and  for  social  recreation  was  quite  inade¬ 
quate.  I  need  waste  no  time  in  describing  the 
advantages  we  have  now  secured  in  our  magnificent 
Hepburn  Hall.  But  the  improved  conditions,  both 
social  and  sanitary,  to  which  the  new  building  invites 
its  occupants,  may  be  also  effected,  with  a  little  care, 
in  all  the  other  buildings  in  which  the  men  of  the 
college  reside.  It  is  the  desire  of  the  Trustees  that 
this  be  done.  They  feel  that  the  college  is  responsi¬ 
ble  for  the  way  in  which  its  students  live,  that  it  is 
highly  inconsistent  to  provide  academic  facilities  for 
cultivated  gentlemen  and  allow  them  to  live  under 
conditions  in  which  it  is  impossible  to  be  gentle¬ 
manly.  They  have  therefore  requested  the  faculty 
to  supervise  all  student  residences,  including  fraternity 


THE  INNER  EIRE  OE  A  COLLEGE 


*3 


houses,  prescribing  the  maximum  number  of  resi¬ 
dents  and  taking  all  necessary  means  to  secure  sanit¬ 
ary  living  conditions,  suitable  for  men  engaged  in 
study.  Through  its  committee  on  student  residences 
the  faculty  will  undertake  to  carry  out  this  direction, 
and  I  bespeak  the  co-operation  of  you  all.  The 
motive  is  the  worthiest — to  improve  the  life  of  the 
college.  There  is  always  some  difficulty  in  picking 
up  a  neglected  responsibility,  but  I  am  sure  you  will 
all  admit  that  it  is  a  responsibility  which  should  be 
faithfully  discharged,  and  I  trust  the  effort  may  result 
in  the  same  friendly  and  helpful  relations  in  student 
homes  that  now  exist  it  the  classrooms. 

I  ask  also  for  a  more  earnest  spirit  hereafter  in 
academic  work.  The  impression  is  general  that 
American  college  students  loaf  too  much  and  work  too 
little.  Mr.  Dooley  says  that  when  the  Freshman 
comes  to  college  the  President  says  to  him, — “And 
now,  my  boy,  what  w’d  yez  like  our  learned  profes¬ 
sors  to  study  for  ye?”  Mr.  Dooley  may  exaggerate, 
but  he  usually  approximates  the  truth.  An  eight 
hour  day  overbooks,  not  including  recitations,  should 
not  be  too  much.  That  allows  two  hours  study  for 
each  recitation  in  the  week,  which  is  a  higher  aver¬ 
age  than  we  have  maintained.  No  student  has  a  right 
to  be  looking  for  prejudice  in  his  professors  who 
does  not  do  as  well  as  that. 

Too  few  of  you  wake  up  to  the  privilege  of  col¬ 
lateral  reading  and  independent  study.  The  notion 
is  too  general  that  one  must  get  credit  for  all  that  he 
does.  I  think  the  most  rewarding  work  done  in  any 


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MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


college  is  that  which  is  not  prescribed,  but  which 
some  students  find  a  way  to  for  themselves. 

We  ought  to  invent  some  way  to  save  students 
from  undue  participation  in  what  are  known  as 
“student  activities.”  Athletics  are  good,  and  the 
student  paper,  and  debating,  but  the  man  who  is 
loaded  up  with  offices  and  managerships,  instead  of 
being  an  honor  to  his  fraternity,  is  an  exhibit  of  in¬ 
dividual  weakness  and  of  the  folly  of  his  misguided 
friends.  I  would  like  to  see  a  rule  that  no  one  who 
has  a  condition  hanging  over  him  should  be  eligible 
for  a  managership  or  an  important  committee  assign¬ 
ment. 

The  faculty  have  fixed  definite  qualifications  for 
membership  in  the  several  classes.  For  example,  one 
who  has  less  than  24  credits  is  ranked  as  a  Freshman, 
though  he  may  have  been  a  year  in  college.  I  have 
never  heard  those  qualifications  criticised  as  too  rigid 
or  in  any  way  unfair.  I  do  not  believe  they  are.  I 
want  to  suggest  that  hereafter  we  put  them  through 
in  all  departments  of  our  college  life,  including  those 
under  student  control.  If  a  man  is  a  Freshman,  let 
us  be  honest  enough  to  call  him  a  Freshman,  and 
make  him  play  on  the  Freshman  team,  if  he  plays  at 
all,  and  wear  a  Freshman  cap,  until  he  earns  the 
right  to  be  called  a  Sophomore.  One  thing  the  fac¬ 
ulty  can  prescribe,  and  that  is  the  seating  in  college 
assemblies.  In  chapel  the  seating  hereafter  will  be 
strictly  alphabetically  by  classes,  and  as  soon  as  pos¬ 
sible  seats  will  be  assigned  according  to  the  official 
lists,  and  the  monitors  will  mark  any  student  absent 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


15 


unless  he  is  in  the  place  assigned  him  according  to 
his  rank  in  the  Registrar’s  office,  or  they  will  lose 
their  job.  You  must  admit  that  this  is  fair  and  log¬ 
ical  and  wholesome. 

It  would  also  be  most  helpful  if  in  your  own  en¬ 
terprises  you  held  your  associates  to  the  same  rigid 
class  accounting.  There  would  be  fewer  Freshman 
conditions  if  more  than  two  uncancelled  at  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  Sophomore  year  meant  a  Freshman  cap.  I 
would  like  to  see  the  kind  of  college  spirit  that  would 
put  this  through.  It  would  be  one  of  the  most 
wholesome  reforms  which  could  happen.  I  appeal 
to  you  to  add  your  own  social  sanctions,  which  I 
know  are  very  powerful,  to  the  official  acts  of  the 
college.  We  do  not  require  too  much  for  admission 
to  any  class:  I  would  like  to  see  the  whole  force  of 
the  college  behind  the  just  enforcement  of  those  fair 
requirements. 

I  appeal  also  for  student  co-operation  in  main¬ 
tenance  of  the  moral  ideals  for  which  Middlebury 
College  ought  to  stand.  There  are  some  matters 
not  mentioned  in  our  laws,  which  are  perhaps  best 
omitted  from  formal  rules,  which  ought  to  be  taken 
for  granted.  In  this  day  when  public  sentiment  is 
stronger  than  ever  before  against  the  use  of  intoxi¬ 
cating  liquors,  when  business  corporations  and  war¬ 
ring  nations  recognize  that  alcohol  in  any  form  or 
any  quantity  diminishes  efficiency,  there  should  be 
no  toleration  for  the  indulgence  in  an  institution 
which  aims  to  send  forth  worthy  leaders.  If  I  know 
it,  there  will  not  be. 


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MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 


There  is  room  for  improvement  in  the  speech  we 
tolerate  about  our  campus  and  in  our  buildings.  The 
use  of  profanity  is  usually  mere  thoughtless  imitation. 
It  is  one  of  the  easiest  of  evil  practices  to  avoid,  and 
the  man  who  frees  himself  from  it  does  more  to  in¬ 
crease  his  self-respect  and  the  regard  in  which  others 
hold  him  at  less  cost  and  personal  sacr  fice  than  is 
the  case  with  any  other  vice  I  know.  I  wish  we 
could  find  some  other  name  besides  ‘‘smoker”  for  an 
athletic  revival  meeting.  It  does  not  seem  quite 
right  for  the  President  of  the  Union  to  stand  up  in 
this  chapel  and  announce  a  “smoker.”  Why  not 
call  it  a  football  rally,  and  omit  both  the  “smoker” 
and  the  smoke? 

I  may  not  dwell  on  other  phases  of  morals,  positive 
and  negative,  which  I  would  be  glad  to  commend  to 
you.  I  would  like  to  see  Middlebury  College  stand 
for  clean,  strong  manhood  and  womanhood,  not 
Pharisaical,  not  over-conscious  of  its  superiority,  but 
in  a  simple,  natural  way  studying  to  avoid  all  that 
is  unseemly  and  to  attain  every  virtue  that  is  of  good 
report.  I  believe  the  general  student  sentiment  sup¬ 
ports  such  a  position  and  I  trust  we  can  bring  it  more 
to  the  front  and  make  it  more  dominant  in  our  col¬ 
lege  life. 

Let  us  then  start  the  year  with  effort  to  do  all  we 
can  for  a  better  and  worthier  Middlebury.  As  we 
look  about  us,  we  see  how  much  others  have  done 
for  the  growth  and  progress  of  the  college.  But  the 
real  progress  must  be  from  within  and  we  who  are 
here  must  attend  to  it.  There  have  been  too  many 


THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  A  COLLEGE 


17 


failures  in  times  past.  Just  look  at  the  record  of  the 
class  which  left  us  last  June.  They  entered  102 
strong.  When  it  came  to  Sophomore  year  there  were 
88,  Junior  year  75,  and  they  graduated  60.  Every 
one  of  those  who  dropped  out  represents  loss,  to  them¬ 
selves  and  to  the  college.  Some  left  the  ranks 
because  of  unavoidable  difficulties,  but  the  greater 
number  dropped  out  for  the  failure  of  some  teacher 
to  stir  their  enthusiasm  and  awaken  their  ambition 
at  the  right  moment,  and  from  their  own  failure  to 
respond  to  the  efforts  made  in  their  behalf.  Many 
fatalities  might  have  been  avoided  by  better  ordering 
of  our  student  life,  fewer  distractions,  quieter  dormi- 
iories,  less  moving  pictures,  less  “fussing,”  and  a 
stronger  student  sentiment  in  favor  of  earnest  work. 

We  ought  to  do  a  great  deal  better.  We  are 
situated  to  do  better  with  the  class  of  1920.  Let  us 
put  our  minds  to  the  problem,  and  in  the  quality  of 
our  student  life  effect  as  notable  advance  these  com¬ 
ing  years  as  our  generous  benefactors  have  enabled 
us  to  make  in  the  things  which  show  outwardly. 

Members  of  the  incoming  class:  We  welcome  you 
to  privileges  greater  than  any  previous  class  of  this 
college  ever  enjoyed.  We  welcome  you  also  to  our 
problems.  You  are  not  received  into  a  perfect  insti¬ 
tution.  We  need  to  become  better  in  many  ways. 
You  can  do  much  to  help  us,  by  entering  sympa¬ 
thetically  into  our  life,  by  putting  a  spirit  of  earnest 
resolution  into  your  work,  and  by  preserving  through 
all  the  process  of  adjustment  to  our  ways  those  high 
ideals  and  worthy  purposes  which  I  know  are  in  your 


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middlebury  college  bulletin 


hearts  this  day.  Your  success  depends  upon  your 
knowing  what  to  let  go  and  what  to  hold  fast.  In 
many  matters  of  custom  and  manner  you  can  afford 
to  do  as  you  are  told.  In  all  matters  of  principle 
you  will  do  well  to  stand  by  your  own  judgment. 
Do  not  be  easily  discouraged.  Many  of  the  best 
students  have  the  hardest  time  at  the  first  and  over¬ 
come  the  severest  obstacles.  A  college  is  a  world  in 
miniature.  If  you  can  succeed  here,  you  can  succeed 
beyond.  And  you  can  succeed,  and  help  us  to  larger 
success,  if  you  will  try  hard  enough. 

I  now  declare  you  duly  matriculated  students  of 
Middlebury  College  and  members  of  the  class  of 
1920. 


